ISSUE DATE: JULY 2004  OPTIONS
Amplifiers & Oscillators

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July 2004 - In This Issue

[Cover Story]
Software Speeds Complex IC Design
Consumer demand for greater functional integration in wireless and Internet-enabled products drives an increased adoption of CMOS and SiGe technologies for high-performance circuit design. This leads to a beneficial reduction in device footprint,...  — Deepak Ramaswamy , et al.

[News]
Choosing To Combine Or Divide Power
Power must often be combined from multiple transistors in an amplifier or antennas in a system, or divided among channels in a receiver. For that reason, the humble RF/microwave power dividers/combiners is among the most competitive product areas...  — Jack Browne

[Design Features]
ESD-Hardened Device Fuels UHF Amplifiers
Automotive applications in the ultra-high-frequency (UHF) band require transistors that provide good RF performance but are also robust. The BFP460 from Infineon Technologies (Munich, Germany) is a general-purpose transistor that is...  — Jakob Huber , et al.

[Design Features]
Applying S-Parameters To Amplifier Design
Transistor amplifier designers rely on numbers to match active devices to surrounding circuitry and to each other. They may select a transistor from a catalog, but the circuit designer has no influence over the transistor's parameters. These are...  — Joseph F. White

[Design Features]
Tracking Generators Enhance Spectrum Analysis
Spectrum analyzers have long been used with tracking generators to perform swept scalar frequency-response measurements on active and passive networks. While many commercial spectrum analyzers can be specified with optional tracking generators,...  — Dan Doberstein

[Product Technology]
Instrument Evaluates Oscillator Performance
Oscillator and synthesizer designers struggle to measure key performance parameters for their components, such as phase noise and tuning linearity. They often rely on large racks of single-function test gear, such as power meters and power...  — Jack Browne

[Product Technology]
Fixtures Accurately Test High-Power Transistors
Power transistors are the building blocks of the high-power amplifiers (HPAs) at the heart of second- and third-generation cellular base stations. Characterizing these devices is often considered a fine art, although the HTF Series of high-power...  — Werner Schuerch

[Product Technology]
MEMS Switches Run For 100 Billion Cycles
Microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology is coming of age in terms of reliability. The RMSW200 RF MEMS single-pole, single-throw switch offered by RadantMEMS (Stow, MA), for example, has been performance tested at 10 GHz for high reliability...  — Jack Browne

[Editorial]
Understanding Specsmanship
Power dividers/combiners are considered "essential" components by most amplifier designers. Now available at RF and microwave frequencies in a wide range of packages from roughly 100 suppliers (not to mention distributors), these versatile...  — Jack Browne